


The Nightmare

by Hazel_Redflower



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Ben Solo Needs A Hug, Childhood Friends, Gen, Incase that wasn't obvious already, Nightmares, Poe Dameron is a Good Friend, Poor Ben, Protective Poe Dameron, Sleepovers, Snoke is "The Nightmare Man", The boys' parents are only briefly mentioned, Young Ben Solo, Young Poe Dameron
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-06
Updated: 2020-02-06
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:28:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22587904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hazel_Redflower/pseuds/Hazel_Redflower
Summary: Snoke always made the effort to haunt Ben Solo’s dreams.
Relationships: Poe Dameron & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Kudos: 14





	The Nightmare

Snoke always made the effort to haunt Ben Solo’s dreams. 

Even when he was little more than a toddler, the poor boy wasn’t spared. 

Kylo Ren only has the vaguest of memories regarding this event, but his former childhood friend Poe Dameron remembers what happened quite well. 

Ben and his parents had come to Yavin IV to visit the Dameron family. Ben and Poe had met before, but this was the first time they were both old enough to appreciate one another’s company. They climbed the Force Tree in the backyard, played hide-and-seek in the old barn and chased each other throughout the house. All in all, it was a happy day for the both of them.

Much to the relief of both sets of parents. Poe was the eldest child on Yavin IV by several years, so he didn’t often have a friend to play with that could keep up with him. While Ben was more moody than the typical toddler and lived a rather isolated day-to-day life as a result of who his parents were. 

Something that also pleased their parents was how tired the two of them were by the end of that long day. Poe was naturally rambunctious child who didn’t easily go down to sleep and poor Ben seemed to suffer from an inability to stay asleep the whole night. Neither child complained when they were ushered up to Poe’s room when bedtime came, especially not when their father’s set up an improvised fort of blankets and pillows for the boys to sleep in on the bedroom floor. By the time their mother’s came in to kiss them goodnight, both were already asleep. 

It wasn’t until later that night that things started to go wrong. 

While Poe sleep peacefully, Ben’s dreamscape has taken a turn for the worst. The sunny, colorful forest he had been frolicking in suddenly turned quite scary. The sunlit sky was now blood red, the trees lost their shiny leaves, the ground was no longer grassy- Ashes coated it instead. Then the figure who Ben had long ago come to fear and had nicknamed “The Nightmare Man” appeared, laughed a hideous laugh and began chasing the poor boy. 

And no matter how fast Ben ran The Nightmare Man was always right behind him. Taunting him by telling him about all the horrible things he would do once he got his hands on him. This was unfortunately, not an unfamiliar dream to Ben. He had experienced any number of variants and they all ended the same way:- The Nightmare Man would catch him, hold him aloft as if he was some great prize and gloat “Now I have my hands on you, young Solo!”. 

Then as if on cue, Ben would wake up crying and would usually be too distressed to go back to sleep. 

This night though, was different. 

Because Ben had a bedmate, one who would come awake at any little thing. 

His friend whimpering and crying and squirming all over their pillow fort was no little thing. 

Poe was only young himself, but his friend’s distress was quite clear to him. Ben went from huddling in a bramble bush with The Nightmare Man standing over him to being tucked up in his favorite blanket with Poe quietly shaking him. It was quite a relief for the boy, but that didn’t stop his tears.

Poe asking what was wrong didn’t stop the tears. Poe going to fetch his favorite X-Wing model so Ben could hold it --That always helped when Poe got scared or upset!-- didn’t stop the tears. A big hug from Poe didn’t stop the tears. But Poe wiping the tears away while declaring that he wouldn’t let anything bad happen to him did. 

“It’s okay Benji, I’ll protect you.” 

And so, for perhaps the first time in his life, Ben Solo went back to sleep after having had a nightmare. His friend Poe Dameron wrapped around him. Poe’s mother Shara found them that way in the morning. As had Ben’s mother Leia late in the night, when she’d gone to check on the boys after some sense of urgency woke her up out of her own sleep.


End file.
